Tourism Guide for Skegness, East Coast and Wolds is saved

SECWHA launch their Holiday Guide 2017 in partnership with Johnston Press. Pictured are June Howard, Business Development Manager, and Bill Hutchinson, chairman. ANL-160507-094635001

Published:08:13Sunday 10 July 2016

Thousands more families could be heading to the coast and Wolds next year thanks to a new partnership which has saved a popular holiday guide.

Skegness East Coast and Wolds Hospitality Association (SECWHA) has teamed up with Johnston Press, which publishes your Standard, to print and distribute the guide free in 13 of its titles across the East Midlands, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire.

In May the future of the current The Skegness, Mablethorpe and The Lincolnshire Wolds guide was threatened when former partners East Lindsey District Council pulled the plug on distributing it to concentrate on its new tourism website, visiteastlin colnshire.com, which will include a digital visitor guide.

This was in spite of 100,000 copies being printed for 2016, an increase in requests for it and a positive response to the new ‘handbag’ size.

Johnston Press is to print 185,000 copies of the 2017 guide and distribute them in its titles in Mansfield, Sheffield, Derbyshire, Doncaster, Gainsborough, Ilkeston, Buxton, Alfreton, Retford and Ripley, Worksop, Northampton and Peterborough.

The guide will also be available in tourist Information centres, at Jolly on Tour promotion events and online.

June Howard, SECWHA business development manager, said: “Following East Lindsey’s decision to withdraw from our partnership for producing a holiday guide, we were overwhelmed with people saying they wanted it to continue and asking if we could do something.

“The challenge for us was always the marketing and distribution. We looked at various possibilities but decided that the agreement with Johnston Press was the best option and we are excited at the prospect of this new partnership.”

Bill Hutchinson, chairman of SECWHA, added: “This is a huge leap of faith and we really need businesses, of every description, throughout the whole area to get behind it and advertise.

“Without the advertising, the guide will not happen. There will be some changes and the team have some great new ideas for advertisers, so I am confident we can do it.

“Because of the wide distribution, the print run will be substantially increased on last year, in fact almost doubled, and will reach a lot of new people and potentially bringing a lot of new visitors to the area.”

Stephen Stray, group editor of Johnston Press’ Lincolnshire titles, said: “We are thrilled to form this partnership which will ensure this very important guide is not only still distributed, but gets to thousands more potential visitors to our wonderful coast and the Wolds.

“This also highlights our real commitment to the communities we serve. The tourism industry in these areas is massive - not only in the amount of visitors it attracts to spend their money here, but also in the number of jobs it creates and sustains. We are delighted to be able to help boost this whenever we can.”

If you have a business and would like to advertise contact 01754 767300 or secwha@btconnect.com